Rogers certified in disputed 8th District

By Yael Kohen

Daily Staff Reporter

Mike Rogers, a Republican state senator from Brighton, was certified by the state as the winner in the 8th Congressional District for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday.

The certification occurred at 3 p.m. yesterday, and immediately afterward his opponent, state Sen. Dianne Byrum (D-Onondaga) submitted her request for a recount.

Rogers defeated Byrum by only 160 votes out of 300,000 in the 8th District.

Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Candice Miller, said a recount will be granted. "Any candidate has the right to a recount," she said.

Byrum submitted her request to the State Board of Elections canvassers yesterday, asking for a recount in 207 of the 332 precincts in the 8th District.

Rogers is planning to submit an additional request to the board today asking that all the precincts be counted in the district.

"We feel that if you're going to do a recount the entire district should be recounted," Rogers spokeswoman Sylvia Warner said.

Byrum submitted her request through the Michigan Recount Fund to the State Board of Election canvassers.

A full, district-wide recount would take two weeks, Boyd said.

The recount was requested because of potential inaccuracies, Michigan Recount Fund press secretary Adam Wright said.

Wright said in an election this close a recount is necessary.

Wright also gave other reasons for the recount, including rumors about some students not knowing where to vote and being turned away from voting precincts in Ingham County. Wright said there were also problems with the optical scan voting system in Washtenaw County.

"We're still very confident that the election results will be the same," Warner said.

Despite Byrum's request, Rogers is moving ahead as a congressman-elect and attended freshman orientation in Washington last week. Rogers is also preparing his staff for the changeover.

In light of the problems election officials have been facing in certifying Florida's presidential election results, Boyd emphasized that Michigan cannot be compared to the situation in Florida.

"You cannot and do not compare us to the state of Florida," she said. "We have promlugated rules that have gone through a legislative process."

Michigan has clearly defined, intricate voting regulations that even include details about how much of the chad can be detached from the ballot.

Chads - the piece of paper that is supposed to be punched out in a ballot - has been the source of much of the controversy in Florida, where election officials have argued about whether chads had been punched.

Under Michigan election law, the candidate who requests a recount must pay for the process. Recount costs are $10 per precinct. Byrum would pay for the recount in the 207 precincts that she requested and Rogers would pay for the recount in the 125 precincts that he requests.

"We would be requesting a recount no matter what happened in the the presidential election in Florida," Wright said.